Portside

Fast food workers plan another nationwide strike on December 4. Ricky Eisenberg provides some background on the campaign.

Stewart Detention Center is operated by the private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Problems at Stewart include the far-flung location of the facility and resulting isolation of people detained there, physical and verbal abuse, spoiled food and non-potable water, lack of recreation time, minimal access to legal materials, substandard medical care,little oversight or accountability and the absence of any meaningful grievance procedures.

An in-depth look at the current political crisis in Mexico, brought about by the murder and kidnapping of students and revelations of governmental corruption.

Four Ways a California Police Chief Connected Cops With Communities A critical look at any institution with as much power and authority invested in it as the police is probably a good thing.

In the 1960s, the agency sought to fight Communism through the students rights movement. There's little reason to think its tactics have changed.

African-Americans are disproportionately likely to be poor, they are only a quarter of Americans living in poverty; whites make up about 41% of the poor. Those white Americans who don't want to help the poor because they'd be helping people of another race are actually screwing over white people big time.The wealth gap between /white and African-American families tripled between 1980 and 2009.

African-Americans are disproportionately likely to be poor, they are only a quarter of Americans living in poverty; whites make up about 41% of the poor. Those white Americans who don't want to help the poor because they'd be helping people of another race are actually screwing over white people big time. The wealth gap between /white and African-American families tripled between 1980 and 2009.

We've all been waiting for the grand jury's decision, not because most of us expected an indictment. District Attorney Robert P. McCulloch's convoluted statement resembled a victory speech. For a grand jury to find no probable cause even on the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter is a stunning achievement...If the police contributed to the "epidemic" of violent deaths, a case can be made for the complete withdrawal of the police from Black and Brown neighborhoods.

"...it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard." [March 14, 1968]

For a Native American, the story of Thanksgiving is not a very happy one. Jacqueline Keeler, a member of the Dineh Nation and the Yankton Dakota Sioux finds occasion for hope. Poem for Thanksgiving 2014 by Seymour Joseph. Svati Kirsten Narula's research article, How America's Thanksgiving Turkeys Got so Huge - doubling in size in 50 years.